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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoERIC ALBRECHT | DISPATCHThe Santa Maria, docked Downtown along the Scioto River, will shut down Oct. 16, then be towed to the middle of the river, where it will wait for two years as the shoreline is improved.

Columbus’ swashbuckling Downtown attraction will raise its gangplank for two years to allow for
construction along the Scioto River.

The Santa Maria, a replica of Christopher Columbus’ flagship moored on the Scioto River, will be
closed down and towed to the middle of the river next month to allow for completion of the $35.5
million Scioto Greenway project.

The details of the project’s shoreline improvements are pending, but the plan is to make the
area around Battelle Park, near City Hall and the U.S. District Court, into a larger, more usable
public attraction after the Main Street Dam is demolished and the river narrows.

A promenade at Battelle Park would connect to another near the Ohio Supreme Court building.

The Santa Maria, which receives city funding and is run by the nonprofit Santa Maria Inc., will
close on Sunday, Oct. 19, and reopen in the spring of 2016.

“We don’t know if we will be moored or anchored in the middle of the river, but we will be
sitting out of the way,” said Linda Ketcham, executive director of the nonprofit. “The good thing
is the city is going to build us a new dock with a dry docking facility and will possibly have a
new visitors’ center.”

City officials said the ship will be permanently relocated near its existing location after the
project is completed.

“We still need to work out some of those details, but the plans are that the ship is staying in
the river,” said Alan McKnight, director of the city’s Recreation and Parks Department.

Ketcham said about 17,000 people visit the ship annually to feel what life was like in 1492 when
Columbus set sail to explore the world. There are also pirate exhibitions on the ship throughout
the year.